Social Networking

In my job, I read a lot of advertising and marketing journals (who would've guessed that I'd ever be reading those?). The big thing right now is social networking. Social networking is huge! It's everywhere!

FACEBOOK

MYSPACE

LINKEDIN

TWITTER

BLOGS

cough.

Yep, everyone it seems is doing it. All the cool kids. All the dorky kids. All the nerds. We love it. It's a way to connect with others without ever having to speak a word out loud or look someone in the eye. Fantastic!

Obviously, I'm slightly skeptical. When facebook came out, I used it fanatically as a procrastination tool (you could always tell when someone was working on a term paper by the number of changes they made to their profile). Now, I'm more apathetic towards it. I like it, but I don't really care about it. It's a nice way to stay in touch with people so that I can, say, decline invitations to my 5 year high school reunion, but other than that I haven't really gotten into it.

But last night I was feeling pretty bad about myself, as I tried to ride my new bike and was unsuccessful. (I need to get new pedals). I moped a little bit, cried a little bit, ate an ice cream sandwich or two for dinner and then felt fat and completely unable to do anything. My newly framed marathon photos adorn my wall, making me feel so far away from the girl who ran 26.2 miles. So I pulled up the DC Tri Club website and started to peruse. I joined the Dc Tri Club a couple months ago, sending in my $30 and receiving a t-shirt, water bottle, and sticker for it. But I didn't do anything with the actual club. Now I've learned, Surprise!, that joining the dc tri club doesn't make me a triathlete. That requires actual energy and action.

One of the first threads I read in the "forum" (obviously, this is some sort of social networking tool, otherwise I wouldn't be bringing this up) was from some people who live very close to my new apartment. And all the threads were about staying motivated and finding training buddies! So now I'm in touch with some people about biking, swimming together (still on the fence for running since I'm known to be an anti-social runner).

Conclusions? It's important to utilize the resources out there. If it's social networking, so be it. I'm all for the internet. Yay internet! They also have lists of free group workouts that you can go to. How awesome is that? Maybe I don't need to invest as much money into this as I thought...just time.

(Also, it's important to note that I do not endorse eating ice cream sandwiches for dinner. They are a delightful snack, but not a sufficient meal.)